


father's son

by WonderTwinC



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 02:19:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3792961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderTwinC/pseuds/WonderTwinC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sophie never told Nate, nor does she ever plan to, but once upon a time years and years ago in a park on a sunny Friday afternoon, she met his son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	father's son

Sophie never told Nate, nor does she ever plan to, but once upon a time years and years ago in a park on a sunny Friday afternoon, she met his son.

Sam was young, perhaps five or six, and he was such a beautiful little boy with Nate’s unruly dark curls and his stupidly endearing smile. His eyes are different, though. They’re not the same color blue that she knew so well, but a lighter, gentler color that he must get from the woman who was sitting on a bench nearby, glancing up at him every so often as he played catch with a couple other children close to his age.

He ran after the ball laughing, his cheeks flushed with color and his hair sticking to his sweaty forehead. Sam looked like he was enjoying himself, sporting a dark red shirt and a pair of already worn out jeans as he darted around in the grass. His mother, Nate’s wife, kept a careful eye on him as she worked, looking up every few minutes to spot him among the other children before going back to her papers.

Sophie did not approach either of them. She was content to keep her distance in the shade of a nearby tree, observing only. Nate spoke of such fondness for his son every time they happened to meet and she could see why. Sam was one of those children that radiated happiness and joy, his spirit definitely kind like his father’s.

She watched as the children tossed the ball back and forth, chasing and laughing until a girl just a few years older than Sam happened to throw the ball too far. It arched high in the air before landing on the ground a few feet in front of Sophie, rolling to a stop within arm’s reach. The children all stopped and stared for a moment, bewildered and somewhat shy, but of course it was Sam who came running toward her.

He slowed down the closer he got, jogging up to her with a wide grin. “Sorry, ma’am,” he spoke clearly with a smile in his voice and a tad bit of Nate’s accent tinging his words. Sophie bent and picked up the rubber ball at her feet, bending down to Sam’s level to offer it back to him.

“Here you go, young man.”

Sophie remembered how Sam beamed back at her with his one hundred kilowatt smile. He took the ball carefully from her with both hands, clutching it close to his chest. “Thank you,” he replied quietly, his manners all in order. Probably more from his mother than his father, Sophie assumed.

In the distance, his mother raised her head to look for him. She was beautiful, Sophie thought, her blonde hair pulled back in a haphazard bun and smooth features. She was almost a little jealous, then, of the woman Nate called his wife.

“Sam!”

The boy in question turned and started his jog back to the benches. Whatever he told his mother when he reached her raised no alarms and she ushered him back to play with a laugh.

Sophie placed the framed crayon drawing back down on top of Nate’s side table, staring at it a moment longer.

It was a sad and terrible thing that had happened to Sam only three years after she’d met him in that park, but in her memory, he would always have his father’s smile.

  
  
  
  
  
  



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